Traders in Wall Street have shown their concern for the future of Disney Pixar’s position in the share market.They are have been producing high quality films for many years now and but lost of people think they have lost touch with their commercial side.
This comes after the relatively poor performance of their last two films Ratatouille and WALL-E. It’s not that they are failing to make money but more the fact they have strong completion to fend off, including the ever popular Dreamworks.Their most recent offering is the film ‘UP’ which sadly lacks the same vital ingredients as their previous efforts according to experts. The overriding opinion is that there is a serious lack of marketable characters and they are not as appealing or purchasable as their previous efforts (think Mickey Mouse) or indeed those of their completion. Dreamworks have had a great run recently with films such as Shrek, Wallace and Grommit and their newest release Monsters VS Aliens. These products feature easily identifiable heroes and villains, and also cute talking creature or animals that covert well the merchandise war. Toys, books, DVD’s, clothes even more obscure products such as dolls houses, all go towards making up the films overall profits.The ability to sell these products is what is lacking in the story lines and characters in Pixar’s latest products.
Some have countered this argument, saying that Pixar is remaining true to its art and would rather produce high quality and meaningful films than create something just so it can sell merchandise off the back of it. They would rather be able to promote the buying of educational toys instead of cheap tacky stuff. However, they cannot ignore the pressure that is currently being put on them by investment companies and shareholders to constantly increase revenue. Richard Greenfield from Pali research downgraded the shares of Disney to sell last month, giving a poor commercial success prediction as a reason.
